DeKALB, Ill. - Renee Sladek didn't know it at the time, but she played her last competitive women's college basketball game in March in Brookings, South Dakota, in a road WNIT loss.

A loss to South Dakota State ended the Merrill High School grad's redshirt sophomore season at Northern Illinois University. The Huskies played in the WNIT after narrowly missing an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament in a loss to Toledo in the Mid-American Conference championship game.

Passion for basketball has never been the question for Sladek. She still loves the game.

The agonizing pain in her left knee is the problem.

"It sounds cliche but, I guess it was kind of the perfect ending," Sladek said. "We won (21) games, made it to the MAC championship, got to a postseason tournament. ... I just really struggled to get through."

Sladek said after talking with her doctor, coaches and her dad, she came to the conclusion that it was probably time for her to stop playing basketball.

"Coach (Lisa Carlsen) wanted me back but witnessed how hard it was for me every day. Much of the time I couldn't practice after games," she said. "It just became too much."

Sladek injured her knee for the first time in high school, tearing her ACL and meniscus in a game in her senior year. Sladek's basketball coach at Merrill, Melissa Yuska, said that the next game Wisconsin, Iowa State and other schools were planning to come watch Sladek play.

"That was a tough day, just calling those coaches to cancel and tell them not to come," Yuska recalled.

Sladek was a standout volleyball and basketball player at Merrill and helped the Bluejays reach the state tournament in volleyball in 2012. Sladek received more interest for basketball and committed to Northern Illinois prior to her senior year.

Sladek averaged 7.1 points, 5.3 rebounds in 23.4 minutes per game in her first season with the Huskies. But late in her freshman year, she suffered another meniscus tear in her left knee. Sladek sat out the 2015-16 season and redshirted.

Merrill graduate Renee Sladek has decided to walk away from the sport of basketball due to left knee issues after playing two years at Northern Illinois.(Photo: Submitted by Renee Sladek)

In 2016-17, Sladek played her best basketball down the stretch, averaging 10 points per game while going 13-for-19 from the field (.684) in the MAC tournament. She also scored 12 points in the quarterfinals to help the Huskies overcome a 22-point deficit, tying for the largest comeback in conference tournament history.

"I went down there for that and she really was playing as good as I've seen her play," Yuska said. "It's almost like that was the best way she could have gone out."

Sladek wasn't planning to step away from basketball after the season, but her knee wasn't feeling good. She struggled just to walk to class and get around campus, she said.

Then in early summer, Sladek's doctor found the bone in her knee was rubbing away and there were two holes in her knee during a scope. Sladek had to wait over a month to find bone plugs to get an exact match and have a reconstructive cartilage surgery called osteochondral allograft.

She needed surgery again. The third knee surgery in less than a handful of years was too much. Her doctor told her there was a 70 percent chance she wouldn't play again. Sladek decided to step away from the game she loves.

"This summer I was in a lot of pain," Sladek said. "I couldn’t do a lot or anything explosive. My doctors, coach, dad and I said it was probably time to be done. I didn't want to go through another long rehab process to play again."

While her playing career is over, Sladek was voted team captain this season. She also says she helps the team in any way she can and is still with the squad every day at practice and on the bench helping out.

"I'd do anything, give an arm or leg, to be back out there," she said. "I tell my teammates don't take it for granted and soak it all up it can be gone anytime."

Renee Sladek has decided to walk away from the sport of basketball due to knee issues.(Photo: Submitted by Renee Sladek)

Now, Sladek is focusing on graduating and is applying for graduate schools. Sladek has been through a lot physically but hasn't let that impact her schoolwork. She is working toward a bachelor's degree in speech pathology and holds a 3.89 GPA, she said.

Yuska said that despite this being a tough time, Sladek has grown as a person. Yuska knows a thing or two about career-ending injuries, as herniated disks and corresponding surgery in her back ended her playing career at Indiana University.

"Renee's work ethic and determination were evident in high school. She is someone that the whole community of Merrill is proud of," Yuska said. "It stinks that the injuries had to cut her playing career short, but she is strong and is better for it. She has a very bright future outside of basketball."

Sladek continues to work toward that future and hopes that it will contain more pain-free days.

"I am so thankful to be a student-athlete and I am just trying to take advantage of the opportunities being on scholarship that I have been given. I'm still struggling, but I am working with a trainer, my doctor and the strength coach," Sladek said. "I just want to focus on the day-to-day stuff and maybe travel and not be in pain. That's what I'm focused on."